Sefton Council’s Director of Public Health Margaret Jones, has written to managers of the Borough’s supermarkets to support their efforts to keep customers and staff safe from COVID-19.




In her letter, Mrs Jones thanks them for their tireless work and for the measures stores are taking to ensure COVID safe practices are followed by members of the public. These include ensuring all staff and customers wear a face covering unless medically exempt, that people shop on their own where possible and that they maintain distancing in store.

Other measures include controlling numbers in the store, layouts, signs and floor markings to promote social distancing, providing hand sanitizer and the facilities to disinfect shopping trollies and baskets and frequent disinfection of regularly-touched surfaces.

Mrs Jones also reminds store managers that their staff can use Sefton Council’s SMART test centres at Bootle Leisure Centre, Aintree Race Course and Splash World in Southport.

The Lateral Flow tests available at the sites are for people without coronavirus symptoms. The results tell people whether they are unknowingly carrying the COVID-19 virus and can help prevent them from spreading it accidentally to customers, colleagues and family members who may be vulnerable. Results can come through in as little as 30 minutes.

This week, the Council has extended opening hours at its three test sites to 8am to 8pm to make it easier for people who are working to go along for a test. No appointments are necessary. It is recommended that those who are working and having to go out and mix with others should get tested every five days.

People wanting a test can check on the live Find a Test map to see if the sites are busy and how long they might have to wait.

Essential purposes
Because the Government’s latest regulations say that people in England must ‘stay at home’ except for essential purposes, only key workers, including those who work in the shops and supermarkets that are open and those with caring commitments during the lockdown should now go for a SMART test. Everyone else should be staying at home, not mixing with others outside our household or bubble, and only going out for local exercise and to shop for essentials. This means we don’t currently need a SMART test unless there are specific circumstances.

Margaret Jones said:

“In my role as a Director of Public Health and as a supermarket user, I really do appreciate the efforts that the stores and their staff are making to enable us to buy the essential supplies we need and keep us safe.

“It is important we all play our part by following the guidance that’s in place for our own safety and respecting that supermarket staff are just doing their job when they ask us to comply.

“And, anyone who is having to go out to work can and should go to get tested and regularly re-tested at our three SMART test sites, from 8am to 8pm seven days a week.”

She finishes her letter with a reminder that anyone showing coronavirus symptoms – a fever, a new continuous cough or a loss of taste or smell should self-isolate and book a test straight away by visiting www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test or by calling 119.

Today' s news from the World Health Organisation - coinciding with the inaugeration of Biden - states:

WHO guidance Diagnostic testing for SARS-CoV-2 states that careful interpretation of weak positive results is needed (1). The cycle threshold (Ct) needed to detect virus is inversely proportional to the patient’s viral load. Where test results do not correspond with the clinical presentation, a new specimen should be taken and retested using the same or different NAT technology.

WHO reminds IVD users that disease prevalence alters the predictive value of test results; as disease prevalence decreases, the risk of false positive increases (2). This means that the probability that a person who has a positive result (SARS-CoV-2 detected) is truly infected with SARS-CoV-2 decreases as prevalence decreases, irrespective of the claimed specificity.

Most PCR assays are indicated as an aid for diagnosis, therefore, health care providers must consider any result in combination with timing of sampling, specimen type, assay specifics, clinical observations, patient history, confirmed status of any contacts, and epidemiological information.

This means - just as many people have been saying - the PCR tests show many false positives which has substantially increased case numbers as claimed by the media. It is now necessary for people to have a repeat test and clinical diagnosis before an accurate diagnosis can be made.

As is claimed in the above report - almost every one of the shops which have remained open have treated customers as adults and with great respect for which they should be applauded. One particular chain of shops should be reminded that Human Rights Laws trump any Covid laws, and any breach to those primary laws can result in prosecution. There has been an unprecedented number of calls to every disabled organisation in the UK, reporting on over zealous shop/service staff who have discriminated unfairly against disabled people, some of whom are elderly. These staff members should be warned that they personally, as well as the company they work for could be liable to prosecution if they do not treat all customers equally..

There is one thing Supermarket chains can do to restrict the spread of the virus and that is to operate a zero tolerance on face covering.

Medical exemptions are a nonsense! If you're fit enough to walk, or indeed ride, around the store then you're fit enough to cover your face!

Enforcement could be an issue in some instances but there is an army of door staff out there who are unable to work due to lockdown. The Supermarkets can afford this as they've done very nicely out of this pandemic.